Wii at E3
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 by Island Dog | Discussion: Personal Computing
Today Nintendo showed some more of their Wii. The next console from Nintendo that is.
The Wii will be available in the fourth quarter of the year, most likely around the holiday season. While they did not announce the price there are many people that are speculating that the Wii will be around $199.
One of the most impressive parts of the conference was the Wii controller. It was best demonstrated with a game in which the user controlls such things as a sword. Check out the videos.
http://www.gamespot.com/wii/action/redsteel/media.html
Many games for both the Wii and Gamecube were announced today also. Zelda, Super Mario Galaxy, and Sonic Wildfire are just a few of the titles that were mentioned.
Check out Gamespots coverage of the Wii at E3.
http://www.gamespot.com/wii/index.html
Sony news conference at E3
Monday, May 8, 2006 by Island Dog | Discussion: Personal Computing
There are some interesting things on this page, but the highlights are the price and release date.
"Hirai takes the stage once again and recaps what's been seen so far. Then he announces the global launch details. It will be available in two versions: one with a 60GB hard drive, and one with 20GB. It will launch in the US on November 17 for $499 for the 20GB version and $599 for the 60GB one."
$499? I will not spend that much. I guess the Xbox 360 is coming my way.
AVI and Flash Conversion Tool
CamStudio
Monday, May 8, 2006 by PoSmedley | Discussion: Community
What is it?
CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using it's built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs) and turn swf into avi files!
Here are just a few ways you can use this software:
* You can use it to create demonstration videos for any software program
* Or how about creating a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions?
* You can create video tutorials for school or college class
* You can use it to record a recurring problem with your computer so you can show technical support people
* You can use it to create video-based information products you can sell
* You can even use it to record new tricks and techniques you discover on your favourite software program, before you forget them
AND IT'S FREE!!!!
As far as the audio part, which was important for me, this records from mic OR speaker. Not all sound cards support the 'from speaker' setting, but if my intergrated Realtek'97 can, I imagine a lot of them can.
I just thought I would share this with anyone who is interested or has been looking for such a program. I have SnagIt 8, which can record video's from the screen, but even that doesn't have the 'record from speaker' option.
I found this through Major Geek, and it is adware free and easy to use and totally free. Hopefully, I have made someone's searching a little easier than it was for me.
LINK..Link
Google Files Microsoft Complaint With DOJ and EU
Browser Wars- Part II
Wednesday, May 3, 2006 by Larry Kuperman | Discussion: Internet
The complaint is reminescent of Netscape and Real's complaint against Microsoft in the 1990's. Both complaints alleged that Microsoft was abusing its position as a monopoly.
From a user perspective, the complaint is without merit. You can change the default browser in IE7 in two clicks. As easily as you can change the default setting in Firefox, which is in fact the Google browser, since Google pays the salaries of the lead developers?
You have to ask what Sergey and Larry (co-founders of Google) hope to gain. Do they want to mire Microsoft in endless litigation again? Do they want to delay the release of Vista, where IE7 is a critical feature?
What will Microsoft do by way of response? Rumor has it that Microsoft is seeking a deal with Yahoo! Smart move. If Microsoft offered Yahoo! as the default (or even threatened to do so) and could financially benefit from Yahoo! searches...well, that would be that.
Sometimes technology companies sue because of real infringements. Sometimes they sue to prevent the release of competing or superior technologies. In the later case, it is the consumer that suffers.
For my IE7 Beta 2 review, click here: Link
Just A Couple Screen Shots
Wednesday, May 3, 2006 by MasonM | Discussion: Personal Computing
WIth a terminal window open
With Firefox running
Nothing too fancy, but I kinda like it.
Will Vista be delayed again?
Wednesday, May 3, 2006 by Island Dog | Discussion: Windows Vista
It really wouldn't surprise me if it was delayed again.
"Research firm Gartner said Tuesday that it believed Microsoft would miss its targets and release Windows Vista another three or so months after its current November-January timeframe. The firm claims Vista's features are too complex to be finished that quickly.
Windows Vista was originally scheduled for a 2005 release, but has been repeatedly delayed as the Redmond company struggled to finish upgrades and ensure a quality release. Vista is the first major upgrade of the Windows platform in five years."
What is a PC gamer to do?
Monday, May 1, 2006 by Island Dog | Discussion: Personal Computing
I am a PC gamer. I admit it. I play Battlefield 2 and right now there is no game better than this. I built my computer about 2 years ago, and at that time it could handle any game you put at it. I put a Radeon 9800 pro graphics card, which was the best at the time, and it does a good job at Battlefield 2 which is very demanding. I have a 2.8ghz Intel CPU and about a gig of RAM.
I downloaded the new demo for Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. http://www.ghostrecon.com/us/
I could only run it on a low setting to play, and the graphics at that setting are a disappointment to what the game is capable of. There are many new PC games coming out this year that I am excited about, but I just hate the thought of upgrading again. I have been looking into the "midrange" gaming cards, but their reviews show performance less than my card performs at now. I really wanted to use the money to buy another Mac to replace my desktop as my primary machine, but I think my gaming might get in the way of that.
Now I have been playing with the idea of buying an Xbox 360, or waiting until the PS3 comes out. Although I will probably end up buying both systems, I don't think either one can replace games on the PC. So back to the original question.....what is a PC gamer to do?
DX Tutorial #2: Using MouseOver to hide/show objects
RomanDA's DX Tutorial Series
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 by RomanDA | Discussion: DesktopX Tutorials
RomanDA's DesktopX Tutorials:
My goal is to make a set
of tutorials for DesktopX. If you have ideas on what you would like to
see, please email me at
DXTutorials@RomanDA.org
| MouseOver DX Controls: | |
| How to use a transparent area and mouseover to show/hide
items. This could easily be modified to use for a DROP DOWN, or SLIDE OUT menu system. |
|
 |
 |
 |
| Master Background | Transparent Background | Item Frame |
| MasterBack | transparentback | Area1,2,3,4 |
The trick to using these is in the ADVANCED properties in DX!
By using these setting you are
able to "stretch out" the Background and still keep its shape and look.
The Left/Right/Top/Bottom are in PIXELS. You have to know the position of
things in your images to be able to use the correctly.
I used the same ADVANCED settings to take the very small Item Frame and make it into the bars you see in the working widget.
This is a great part of DX, it allows you to have a REALLY small png file and use it to make just about any sized bar.
Use these setting below to work out the height/width/top/left/and parent/child relationships:
 |
 |
 |
| MasterBack | transparentback | area1 |
 |
 |
 |
| area2 | area3 | area4 |
 |
You need to
change the Transparency on transparentback item. This makes this item nearly invisible. DO NOT EVER SET IT TO 0 for the opacity!! I have had DX BLOW UP on me
simply by setting this to 0. In the properties of the
transparentback as well as This would need to be a
little different if you are wanting |
 |
So now you have all the parts. and hopefully you have them all put together right.
The way this works is as follows:
- The AREAS(1/2/3/4) reside on top of the transparentback object.
- transparentback object resides on top of the MasterBack object.
- The Script we will create will make the transparentback's width/height match the MasterBack (- a little to make it reside INSIDE)
| STEP 2: Let's look at the scripts: | |
| Ok, now that we have the objects
made, lets play with some scripts. The only object that has a script is MasterBack. Click the PROPERTIES of MasterBack then click on ""NEW" for the script. |
|
| Dim MinW,MaxW MinW = 100 MaxW = 250
Sub
Object_OnScriptEnter |
The above script is designed to
set the default size of the MasterBack to its Min Size.
You could easily change the MinW (minimum width) and MaxW (maximum width) to be
whatever settings you want.
It also sets the top/left/height/width of the transparentback object to
match the size of the MasterBack object.
| Sub Object_OnMouseEnter Call Grow End Sub
Sub
Object_OnMouseLeave |
The above scripts are to handle
the mouse over/leave states.
I have them call sub functions so i could keep track of what it was doing.
It could easily be changed to work without these sub functions.
| Function Shrink object.KillTimer 200 object.SetTimer 100,10 End Function
Function
Grow |
These functions start and stop
the "grow" and "shrink" function of the widget.
You can make it grow/shrink faster or slower by changing the ,10 in the SETTIMER
function.
The 10 is 10 ms. If you want it to be slower make it 20 or 30, faster
would be 5, 2.
| Sub object_ontimer100 If object.width => MinW Then object.width = object.width - 5 desktopx.Object("transparentback").width = object.width-30 Else object.KillTimer 100 End If End Sub
Sub
object_ontimer200 |
These are really pretty simple
"grow" and "shrink" functions.
object_ontimer100 Shrinks the MasterBack width down by 5 pixels at
a time until it reaches the MinW value.
It also changes the transparentback object's width as well.
By making the transparentback shrink at a smaller size than the
MasterBack it looks like the AREA(1/2/3/4) objects are being hidden.
object_ontimer200 does the same thing only in reverse. It makes the object GROW at 5 pixels at a time until it hits the MaxW value.
Once they reach their set values,
they KILL the timer so it stops trying to shrink or grow.
I also added this code in the shrink/grow functions to be sure it doesn't get
stuck in a loop.
| In Conclusion | |
| This is a really simple way to
have a container that shows and hides objects placed inside it. I have
used this for my
GalCiv II Drive Meter widget. I know this seems simple, but it took me a while to figure this out. I hope by posting this article and the widget that I can help other people who are attempting to learn DX. The potential for DX is amazing. Please let me know if you have problems, comments, or questions with this. |
|
 |
Enjoy, RomanDA AKA: David A. Roman http://romanda.wincustomize.com http://www.romanda.org DXTutorials@RomanDA.org |
Should skinning be part of the OS?
Good intentions, negative consequences
Saturday, April 22, 2006 by Draginol | Discussion: Customization Software
If you don't know Kam VedBrat, you should. To a large extent, he is the one who helping make sure that Windows Vista is going to be customizable by users in a real way. At Microsoft, Kam is responsible for a lot of the UI work on Windows Vista. And he is constantly under pressure from well-meaning users who argue that Microsoft should "build in" advanced "customization" features. The problem that those users don't realize is that if Microsoft were to put in too many customization features it would essentially kill off third-party customization and Microsoft is never going to put in the kind of customization that third parties are willing to dedicate themselves to.
Let's explore it though for a moment. Let's put aside the branding issues (the more Microsoft supports customization as part of the OS, the weaker the Windows brand becomes) and let's put aside all the support issues that would rise as users downloaded third party "skins" that weren't compatible with this or that app and called up Microsoft. Ignoring those two issues (which in themselves are show stoppers), the problem is that the really cool customization apps we've seen over the past few years would never have come out if something even half as good were part of the OS.
The vast - VAST majority of users are happy with Windows as is. 95% of users of Windows XP are using the plain blue "Luna" UI and most of them are probably using whatever wallpaper came with the computer. Of that remaining 5% all but a small percent are content with changing to the silver or green (okay silver) Luna. That leaves about 1% of the user base who wants more. How much should the other 99% be charged so that the 1% can be made happy with customization when there's a proven market of third party developers who are able and willing to devote resources to create something far more advanced than what Microsoft could ever justify? Whether you use a feature of the OS or not, you're paying for it. And if only 1% of the userbase would use a feature, why should the other 99% be charged for it? Sure, in absolute numbers, 1% is huge. But in terms of percentages it's trivial.
But let's say Microsoft bowed in and put in say skinning and custom shells and super-duper icon tweaking and countless other things. What would happen? The third party developers would go off and do something else. There'd be no market left other than maybe some freeware developers tweaking on the outer edges. And would the vocal minority who demanded these features in the first place be satisfied? Probably not. Because they would then be joined by the much larger group of people who didn't see a big deal paying 10 or 20 bucks for a utility that did a bunch of really cool things that aren't being updated or made anymore. Microsoft would be stuck with the "responsibility" of supporting and placating those users. And for what? What's the business case? Would those vocal users not have bought Windows? Not have upgraded? Of course they would.
From Microsoft's perspective, going around adding tons of tweaking features or skinning features to the OS is a lose-lose proposition. They weaken their brand. Increase their support costs. Kill off the ISV market where a lot of innovation on Windows comes from. And they don't sell a single copy more than they would have anyway.
So all users who like customizing the way Windows looks and feels in interesting ways should be glad that Kam VedBrat is the Lead Program Manager for the Windows Client Platform Team.
Logitech DiNovo
Friday, April 21, 2006 by DJBandit | Discussion: Personal Computing
This is why I ask for opinions about the Logitech DiNovo.
I saw it a while back and it caught my attention fast. It looked sleek, slim and professional. It had all the features of my Elite Due plus more. The mouse is a great mouse, now the MX1000 Laser mouse with battery indicator, rechargeable, Bluetooth and extra programmable buttons. But my favorite feature was the separate number pad that doubled as a PC remote to control volume, playback and a few other things. Nothing like not having to get up to change the volume or move the movie back and forth or switch songs.
Though and expensive combo, I still want it bad. But I would like to get an opinion of someone who has used it before. I would like some feedback on this combo that I am considering getting when I build my next system before the end of this year. Anything you can give me will be appreciated. I also don’t mind some feedback on people who like it as well, to see what you think and what is your favorite feature.
I would also like to hear some alternatives to this combo. What you would recommend instead, keep in mind I would like to have most if not all the featured of the DiNovo or it’s a no sale. I wouldn’t even mind good features not found on the DiNovo.